Kativik school board’s unionized employees protest ‘stalling’ negotiations

Kativik Ilisirnaliriniq education workers protested in front of the school board’s Montreal headquarters on Tuesday over what they say is a slow negotiation process for a new collective agreement.

The Quebec Labour Congress, representing more than 225,000 unionized teachers and school support personnel, said in a news release the gathering served “to send a clear message at the two [Kativik and Cree] school boards, and give the tone of what the beginning of the next school year could look like.”

The Association of Employees of Northern Quebec represents the Kativik workers and is part of the labour congress.

In an interview, association president Larry Imbeault said the provincial government negotiated a final agreement with all other education workers’ unions six months ago — except those in the North.

That affects approximately 2,000 staff working for the Kativik and Cree boards.

Imbeault said that after 24 meetings with the government, “we nearly have no topics solved, we are far from [resolving] the issues that are a priority to our members.”

Negotiations started in October 2022, he said.

Imbeault said negotiations for previous contracts took fewer than 18 meetings to complete.

The labour congress maintains the impasse is caused by the government not wanting to expand the agreement beyond the deals already reached with southern unions.

“However, it is precisely the particularities of the North where exchanges are stalling,” according to the news release.

A main issue is the indexation of bonuses, which Imbeault said have not been updated since 2001.

“Our members are tired, frustrated,” he said.

Salary negotiations in the south were resolved six months ago, he said, “but our salaries cannot be adjusted as long as our collective agreements are not in effect.”

“Our salaries are frozen,” Imbeault added, saying that even bonuses due in April 2023 and in April this year have not been awarded because negotiations are not settled.

There are currently six negotiations ongoing for education workers in the North, according to the news release, including four that have been in conciliation or mediation for several weeks.

Imbeault said the union wants people to “support us in our demands” because “ultimately, what we want is to better the working conditions of teachers, to better the teaching in classrooms.”